Reader Spotlight: Carol Moxley

Meet Carol Moxley a bassist from Fort Worth, Texas and our player in the spotlight for May 10, 2011.

Bio:

I’ve studied music since age 5 – piano and later guitar, acoustic and classical. My first ‘gig’ was in kindergarten, when I played in church. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t performing in one capacity or another, one one instrument or other. My mother sang opera professionally and my dad played country music on the radio. Naturally I preferred rock.

Location:

Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Day gig:

I’m a wife and the mom of two busy teenagers.

Years experience:

Since the mid-80’s.

Bands & Gigs:

I’m always in more than one band. Because I don’t tour, having more than one local band is the only way I can gig as much as I want. I’m currently primary bassist for two bands and fill in for several others.

Both of the bands I’m currently in are all-female bands. Those are tough to find for many reasons. Here are a few:

#1 Because women typically spend their disposable income on so many things that don’t have to do with music (beauty, fashion, home decor, etc.), there can be little to nothing left for instruments, gear, lessons, etc.

#2 Women tend to be highly social. We like to spend off hours in social situations. Obtaining the sufficient mastery of an instrument needed before getting into a band involves long, lonely hours.

#3 Because women are expected to not only manage households, meet the needs of husbands and children, and also contribute to the household income. Those things have to top our priority list. The demands of being in a band can break the camel’s back for even the strongest of women. Booking, gigging, promotion, building a fan base, maintaining a web presence, writing songs, practicing, recording… making music takes a lot of time. Trying to juggle it all can be intimidating.

#4 From experience I’ll tell you point blank the biggest obstacle to all-female bands is scheduling. Unless the band is very high on everyone’s priority list, it’s nearly impossible to get calendars in sync for a group women with families. (See #3)

Gear:

• Fender jazz bass – Marcus Miller signature model
• Mark Bass Little Mark III head
• Mark bass 4×10 cab
• Yamaha TRB1004
• Fender 250W combo amp
• Bose LI Model II for vocals and other instruments

Why I play the bass:

I played piano from childhood, guitar since my early teens. Shortly after college, I was dating a bass player and got curious about applying my guitar skills to bass. He showed me a few things and I fell in love! With the bass. The guy, I dumped.

My bass superpower/claim to fame

I claim no fame. For a time, I ran a blog for musicians – primarily bassists. Carol Kaye and Chuck Rainey were gracious enough to grant me interviews for my blog.

My influences

Besides Carol Kaye and Chuck Rainey? The classic rock greats: John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Chris Squire, et. al. My greatest influence is probably Timothy B. Schmidt, though. I play bass low and sing harmonies high.

More on the web:

My bands, on the web at Church Chix & Merry and the Mood Swings, and on Facebook.

I’m on MySpace and on FaceBook.